Houston, TX

February 2011

Although now happily ensconced on the other side of the pond, Richard Knight grew up alongside his Feast co-chef James Silk on the south coast of England. The two have been eating, drinking, and cooking together for their entire lives. Knight has more than 20 years of experience as a chef. While in London, he worked at Green’s and The Lindsay House, both Michelin-starred, well respected establishments. He then moved on to become head chef of a successful restaurant in the world-famous artist community at St. Ives in Cornwall.

Knight has lived in the United States for 13 years, working first as a private chef and caterer in Laguna Hills in California before a 1998 move to Texas. Knight was executive head chef at the Chevron Texaco building in downtown Houston before opening Taverna, his first restaurant with fellow ex-pat Silk and Meagan Silk (whose hospitality expertise and passion for food and drink made her the front-of-the-house guru of the group). With their most recent venture, Feast, the chefs combine years of experience—not to mention the culinary rusticity of their shared English childhoods—with a modern emphasis on conscientious cooking. Beyond its warm, neighborhood feel—Feast is frequently referred to as a “labor of love”—the restaurant prides itself on its nose-to-tail use of each and every animal that passes through its kitchen.